Second Time Around

[Xanatos]

These last two years I managed to replay almost every entry in FF series, but a handful of games, FF Tactics was next in line. Let me tell you something first, I'm not a fan of Tactics games, the battles are often way too long and not as engaging as I would like, I tried to get into XCom quite recently and couldn't do it, same goes for Tactics Advance. Naturally it took me ages to beat FF Tactics, at times weeks would go by until I picked the game up again.

Anyways, I'm playing FF Tactics for the second time, and well, I don't know how, not quite sure why, but I'm obsessed with the game. In the last few days alone I managed to rake 16 hours of playthrough. This time around everything clicked with me, I'm engrossed by its story, characters, weirdly even gameplay. It's like I'm playing Civilization V all over again, but instead of "one more turn" it's "one more battle, I need some JP".

Name one game you enjoyed way more second time around.

[Rowan]

Ive always been addidcted to FFtactics advance, not so much the original tactics. No idea why.

I enjoyed ff13-2 and LR far more after using a walkthrough.

[Coff9]

This is a good question.

Hmm, well, for starters, I think I enjoyed Final Fantasy 7 more the second time around. One, because I hadn't played it in years, and two, I'm older now than when I played it the first time, so I understand more things about the game.

Another answer would be the Super Mario games, mostly because I was very young when I played them the first time and was never particularly good.

I'm trying to think of a good answer to this, but I can't quite place my finger on it; basically, every game I've gone back to play again I've enjoyed more than I originally did, since I'm just a bit better at gaming now.

Hmm, but is there one that sticks out?

Thinks for a moment

Probably Morrowind, because while nothing compares to being lost in a new world for the first time, when I was able to play it again years later, I was able to progress and enjoy the story. The first time I played, I would frequently give into my wanderlust and just explore and explore and explore, but never made too much progress in the story or any of the other quest-lines.

But when I was able to play it again later on in my life, while I still would just wander about from time to time, I was able to progress and complete many of the quests. Since I was older, it was easier to figure out the puzzles and decipher the hints and riddles I was given about where to go next.

And now, with mods, playing it the third time around might be even better!

[Crescent]

A fair few because by that time I knew the story, level layouts, and major surprises so I could focus on the finer details while contending with higher difficulty and new enemy placement:

Halo 1, 2, 3 n Reach
Metal Gear Solid :Sons of Liberty
Devil May Cry 3
Ninja Gaiden 2
Megaman X
Batman Arkham City

Also Morrowind, Oblivion, GTA 3 n Vice City for further exploration.

[Heartless Angel]

Gotta agree with Coff on Morrowind. First time through I was blindly stumbling around with no sense of what was going on, no real idea of where I was going with the story or my character, and spent most of my time getting hopelessly lost. Second time around, I knew what was going on and had a lot more fun with it.

[loaf]

FFXII I played for 12 hours straight when it released and got so burned out by it to where i didn't even enjoy it. Reset it a few months later and got stuck on it to where i did almost everything.

[Pete]

Metal Gear Solid series. I have the ps3 mega pack or whatever it's called. I've played them in release order and in chronological order to see if I could pick up on anything else.

I also love replaying ff6 and ff7

[Meier Link]

There are quite a few that fall on my list. Most have already been stated. So I will list others.

The silent Hill and resident evil series
Heavy Rain
ChronoTrigger
Links Awakening
Diablo 1 and 3
Infamous 1 & 2 (haven't played 3 yet)

[SuperSabin]

Games that I like to replay eh? I got some of those

Mega Man X2
Mega Man Legends/64
EarthBound: Beginnings
EarthBound
The entire Ys series
anything Bomberman
Super Bonk
Secret of Mana
Super Amazing Wagon Adventure Turbo
Oregon Trail
Illusion of Gaia
Terranigma
Mario
Sonic
Ace Attorney series
Just Cause 2 & 3

and stopping that list right now before it grows any bigger, but those are games, in particular, I like to replay.

[Xanatos]

I think some of you misunderstood my question and point of this thread. It's not about games you love to replay, it's about games you didn't care much for at first, but surprisingly enjoyed the second time around.

[Pete]

I stand by my decision for the mgs series. The games were fun on their own, but I enjoyed them so much more where I found the plot lines and little callbacks to other characters or ideas coming together and making sense.

I also enjoyed bioshock 1 much more the second time, but that was mostly because I got stuck in a bad save where I really had no shot of succeeding. I gave up on it and actually hated it until the hype for bioshock infinite got me excited. Second time around was much better.

I actually find that I enjoy most rpgs more the second time around, where I generally remember the areas, but have better knowledge of how to prepare, so I can more thoroughly enjoy the story.

[Crescent]

it's about games you didn't care much for at first, but surprisingly enjoyed the second time around.

Like Pete, I stand by first post bc thats really what it felt like in retrospect compared to all my second playthrus. I suppose it wasnt so much the game's fault but me not giving the game a proper go or not being in the mood for it at the time.

Add Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney to my list as well. My younger sisters recommended it to me n I only played a bit of it on my first playthru n jus was nOt feeling it. Plus I wasnt expecting much out of a visual novel type game n it was my very first. Fast forward maybe 6 mnths later I played it again for the second time n blew thru the rest of the games in the series in about a month lol. Its now one of my fave vg series.

[Coff9]

To more accurately answer your question, I will still say the Super Mario games.

When I was younger, around ten years old or so, I rented Super Mario All-Stars, which has the first three Super Mario games, plus Lost Levels. (There's a special version of it that also comes with Super Mario World, but I didn't have that one)

Now, when I played it, I did terribly: I couldn't get farther than the 2nd world in all of the games. I was somewhat frustrated, both at the Mario games themselves and at platforming as a genre. I wanted to go back and play some RPGs, since you couldn't fall off a cliff into death in those. Well, most of them, anyway, haha.

I couldn't understand how they were so popular, let alone popular enough to merit a "box set" release like All-Stars.

Then, a year or two later, I played Super Mario 64.

Everything changed; I fell in love with platforming games and swiftly played my way through all of Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Castlevania 64 (which was poorly received but I will defend it to the death) and even Glover.

Then, a few years after that, I decided to give the original Mario games a go again.

I still did terribly, haha, but I could enjoy them much more now that I understood them. I was able to make it farther than I ever could, but I still couldn't complete any of them. I still try time to time.

Super Mario World is my favorite out of those, mostly because of Yoshi, haha.

[Meier Link]

Ok posting again.

The original Simcity was horrible to me the first time I played it. Then again I was to young to understand the whole system structure.

A friend of mine convinced me to give it another go about a year later and with a better understanding of the structure of the game I fell in love with it.

Can't even count how many hours I played that game.

[SuperSabin]

To accurately answer the question on the OP, I used to hate the battle systems on Ys 1, 2, and 4 specifically because of the bump system where you have to ram into your enemies to damage them. I eventually decided to commit to learning the system and now I find it really addicting and I am also able to enjoy those specific Ys games now I understand the battle system better.

I wasn't into strategy rpgs back then, and at one point I was introduced to the Fire Emblem games. I wasn't very good at it at first, but now that I have grown with experience with those games, I enjoy them much more than I used to. I am a huge fan of FE1 and the Shadow Dragon remake. It also helped me have more respect for strategy rpgs.

[Rocky]

Final fantasy 8 was one of the worst games I ever played on my first play through, but after giving it a revisit, its definitely a top tier rpg. Maybe not the best in series, but way better than I originally gave it credit for.

Ditto with ff6. I thought it was fine the first time around, but after replaying the game I had a new found appreciation for it.

For some reason right now I've been playing through breath of fire 2 on the SNES and I love it much more than first time around; oddly enough I can't get into BoF3 now. Not sure why since a large amount of the fanbase hails 3 as the best too.